"Growing up in a country whose census regularly asked me to 'check one box' or choose between my many cultures, as if one had more weight or importance than another, became the foundation for my artistic practice. My artwork interrogates these stringent racial boxes by applying them to where they most fall apart - multiethnic, multicultural identities. I grew up in a house where ‘asado’ was eaten with ‘kimchi’ and where dinner conversations seamlessly shifted from English to Spanish to Korean. My artistic practice reflects my ancestry as a descendent of refugees who migrated globally, settling and creating communities with mixed traditions. My artwork highlight underrepresented stories of global immigration, celebrating diversity while highlighting commonalities rather than differences among people. I dismantle borders surrounding definitions such as ‘white’, ‘Asian,’ ‘Latina’, ‘Argentinian,’ or ‘American’ by exhibiting work that reflects on the nuances and changing nature of these identities in an argument that humans cannot be defined by a label. I argue that instead of race, a social construct that has been used to divide and discriminate, we should emphasize the intersection of our ethnicities, cultures, religions, and traditions."

​Jennifer Lugris was born in North Bergen, NJ. She earned her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2018. Her paintings have been exhibited and published internationally, and have won several awards. Solo exhibitions include Verge Center for the Arts, Richmond Art Center, Merced College, and Maturango Museum, among others. She currently lives in Sacramento, CA with her family, dogs, cats, and chickens. For Lugris’s full CV click the link below. 
Curriculum Vitae